CH 608

The black talisman was distinctively shaped, almost like a chain, with strange, twisting patterns carved on its surface.

Su Yi picked it up and examined it. He immediately realized it was a signaling talisman for requesting reinforcements!

I’ll have to find an opportunity to crush it and see much prey I can draw out of Celestial Prison Demon Court, thought Su Yi. He put it and the Soul-Beckoning Banner away, but he couldn’t be bothered to spare the rest of Lu Zheng’s belongings a second glance.

“Let’s go.” Su Yi glanced at Yuan Wuton and the others, then turned and walked into the distant darkness. His companions hurried after him.

“Master Su, take care of yourself!” Yuan Wutong clasped his fist.

Mu Cangtu and the others clasped their fists as well.

Although Su Yi left without so much as bidding farewell, who’d dare treat him with disrespect?

After all, if Su Yi and his companions hadn’t shown up tonight, the Cloudriver Prefectural… might well have fallen to the rampaging beast tide already!

Outside the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital, the banks of the Great Azure.

The night was desolate, with silence on all sides.

Su Yi paused, and after a moment’s hesitation, he proceeded against the current.

If he continued upstream, he’d reach Guangling City.

That was where Su Yi first awakened the memories of his past life, but he’d made numerous new memories there too.

“Master, where are we going?” Yuan Heng couldn’t help but ask.

“I’m afraid that after this… I won’t return to the Great Zhou. I’d like to take this opportunity to look around,” Su Yi said casually.

The Great Zhou was, arguably, a “home country” of sorts for him now that he’d reincarnated.

But it ultimately wasn’t his true native land.

As he pursued greater heights of the Grand Dao, he was sure to venture further and further away from this tiny, remote nation.

Thus, he wanted to seize this opportunity to look around and… bid farewell.

They said, “home is where the heart is”, and the Great Zhou would remain in his heart forever.

……

Early in the morning.

Outside Guangling City.

Su Yi gazed upon the familiar city walls, and figures rose unbidden to his mind.

The lively, beautiful Wen Lingxue. The shrewd, greedy Qin Qing. The honest, simple Wen Changtai. The dowager who ruled with an iron fist…

Them aside, there was City Lord Fu Shan, Commander Nie Beihu, Family Head Huan Yunchong, Huang Qianjun, Nie Teng…

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

However, Guangling City had obviously changed his he was last here.

Outside the city, the ground was strewn with the corpses of spirit beasts. The walls were splattered with blood, and numerous sections had split or collapsed.

In the past, the city would have been crowded and bustling at this early hour.

Yet now, the only people they saw were a group of armed guards patrolling the city. This lent the place an additional austerity.

There was no doubt that spirit beasts had attacked Guangling City too, but their influence was relatively minor.

Su Yi strode confidently through the city gates.

He followed a familiar path and saw Pinecloud Sword Manor.

He still remembered when, as the Wen Family’s live-in son-in-law, he’d come here regularly. He’d come to meet his little sister-in-law, Wen Lingxue, when classes ended for the day.

As he wandered the city streets, he inadvertently found himself on Bluefinch Street, and he saw Apricot Clinic off in the distance.

Su Yi had once taken up residence in Apricot Cottage, the little courtyard behind the clinic.

It was there that he obtained a Soul-Nurturing Gourd from the Deathbringer’s Gate’s Wu Ruoqiu, and it was there that he first met Qing Wan.

Even at this early hour, there was an enormous line outside the clinic.

Unlike in days gone by, the vast majority of the patients were martial artists. All of them wore bloodstained clothes, and their hair was disheveled. It seemed they’d recently overcome a bloody battle.

“Wait here for a bit,” Su Yi ordered his companions. Then, he strode into Apricot Clinic.

Inside, everyone was busy as could be. The steward, Hu Qian, was personally helping dress a martial artist’s wounds.

The dense smell of blood mixed with the fragrance of medicinal herbs, and the combination irritated his nose.

When Su Yi walked in, a servant looked up in confusion. “Young lord, are you here to see a doctor?”

Su Yi shook his head. “You can keep doing what you were doing.”

Despite his confusion, the clinic was simply too busy for him to pay any further attention to Su Yi, so the servant immediately got back to work.

Su Yi continued through the clinic’s back door and arrived at the Apricot Clinic.

There, he saw three gray-tiled buildings arranged like the character “品”, a vegetable garden, and a trellis. A thick, hardy locust tree stood at the center of the courtyard, next to a well.

The clear morning sunlight bathed the courtyard, making it seem extraordinarily peaceful.

The courtyard was just as it had been in the past. Someone must have stopped by to clean and do maintenance regularly. Everything was spotlessly clean.

Su Yi took out his wicker chair, then sprawled out beneath the old locust tree. He felt indescribably calm. Images of his time living in this courtyard rose unbidden to his consciousness.

A gentle breeze swept by, and the branches of the old locust tree swayed, its leaves rustling.

Su Yi looked up at it. Suddenly, he froze, stunned.

The old locust tree had a trace of awareness!

“Are you greeting me?” Su Yi asked softly.

The old locust tree’s branches swayed as if with delight.

Su Yi smiled. He could guess what had happened.

During his time in Apricot Cottage, he’d guided Qing Wan’s cultivation in this very courtyard. Furthermore, when he cultivated here, he’d gathered the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

The old locust tree had benefitted enormously from this too.

Now that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was gradually recovering, the tree, with its roots embedded firmly in the earth, had naturally achieved a thread of awareness.

“With your foundations as an ordinary locust tree, you achieved spirituality due to my presence. Consider that your good fortune. What’s even rarer and more precious is that fate brought us together once more. Fine, then. We were fated to meet, so I’ll help you once more.”

Su Yi rose from his wicker chair, raised his hand, and outlined something in the sky.

Wisps of the Dao Charm of Wood formed into misty green light and sprayed from Su Yi’s fingertip. In just a few breaths of time, the light outlined a profound and elaborate Edict.

“Go.” Su Yi gently tapped it.

The Edict outlined with the Dao Charm of Wood transformed into misty green light and surged into the old locust tree.

Su Yi then placed his hands behind his back and watched in silence.

It was already winter, and the tree’s bark was dry and cracked, while its branches were bare.

But soon, spiritual energy gathered from all directions and trickled down onto the tree, bathing it.

The tree’s gray, empty branches visibly flourished with dense life force, turning vibrant and green. Fresh new leaves sprouted, then grew like mad…

In just a few breaths of time, the tree was green and full of vitality. Dense life force filled the courtyard, making every breath pleasant and relaxing.

“If the people treat you with kindness, stay here and protect them. If you do, you can consume the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and benefit from the incense and piety of devotees. You’ll have no need to fear failing to become an object of worship, and your cultivation will proceed smoothly,” said Su Yi casually.

“But if they’re greedy, and if they try to use your wood to refine medicine, you can leave and seek out the Grand Dao on your own.

“Either way, you're now what the people of the Great Zhou would call a ‘yaoling’, or yao spirit. If a tree such as yourself maintains a firm and benevolent heart, you’re sure to one day support a world of your own.”

With that, Su Yi turned and left.

The moment he stepped through the courtyard gates, he felt an inexplicable sense of enlightenment well within his heart, and a faint smile rose unbidden to his lips.

I simply resolved a tiny little mundane karmic tie, yet it settled and sublimated my Dao Heart. What an interesting stroke of fate.

By the time he returned to the Great Zhou, his cultivation was already in the late-stage Gathering Stars Realm.

He’d spent his journey here pondering how to resolve his unpredictable Tribulation of Spiritual Manifestation.

In the end, Su Yi’s pondering led him to a path: he’d seek answers within his heart!

There was no need to give his cultivation base any further thought. So long as he continued tempering it, he’d naturally reach the peak of the Gathering Stars Realm.

It was his Dao Heart that was most likely to show weakness as he proved his Dao and overcame his tribulation.

After all, although his Dao Heart was firm, he was stained with the karma of his past life.

When he underwent tribulation, and when its strange and unfathomable powers assailed him, these flaws might well prove fatal.

This was why, upon returning to the Great Zhou, Su Yi didn’t rush to the Sea of Chaotic Spirits to reconvene with Ning Sihua, Cha Jin, and the others.

Instead, he chose to return to familiar places, as if turning back time. In doing so, he could settle his heart and resolve some of the subtle fetters of the mundane world deep within his heart.

That was why he’d returned to Guangling City. However, not even Su Yi would have guessed that granting Apricot Cottage’s old locust tree a stroke of good fortune on a whim would have such an effect.

But then, it makes sense. When I left Apricot Cottage, I said that should fate bring us together again, I wouldn’t mind granting the locust tree a stroke of good fortune. It might have seemed a thoughtless statement, but in truth, it was the beginning of karma between us.

This is what the Buddhists mean when they say there’s a reason behind every sip and every bite, Su Yi thought to himself.

He was well aware that, even if he forgot about this trivial, unassuming little interlude, and even if it had no influence on his future, this karmic bond was a heaven-defying stroke of fortune for the locust tree!

When Su Yi left Apricot Clinic, no one noticed him.

However, the people inside soon breathed in a refreshing, pleasing fragrance.

“It smells wonderful!”

“Why do I suddenly feel so much better?”

“What is this fragrance?”

As the patients and servants conversed, Steward Hu Quan and the clinic’s physicians quickly discovered the source of the fragrance. All of them gathered in Apricot Cottage.

When they saw the vibrant, flourishing locust tree covered in leaves despite the piercing winter winds, all of them froze in place.

“This…”

“Did the old locust tree achieve sentience?”

All of them were astonished, and they immediately broke into discussion.

Standing near the locust tree soothed their hearts and souls. With every breath, a comforting warmth coursed through them.

Before long, the tree’s branches swayed, and snow-white locust flowers drifted into the air.

When they landed on the wounded martial artists, the flowers disappeared, like snow melting into water.

To their astonishment, the wounded martial artists discovered that their injuries were knitting back together at shocking speeds.

In just a few breaths of time, they were as good as new!

Some of them, those who hadn’t been injured, received other benefits. Their blood and qi flourished, and their bodies brimmed with power.

“A miracle! This is absolutely a miracle!”

“My heavens! How could the old locust tree change so dramatically? Did it truly achieve sentience?”

A cacophony of voices rang out.

Some of the martial artists were so excited that they threw themselves to their knees in gratitude, and they addressed the old locust tree respectfully as “Honored Tree Spirit.”

The steward, Hu Quan, stood there in a daze for a while before muttering, “Could it be that the old locust tree received enlightenment from the Wen Family’s former son-in-law? Is that why it’s changed?”